


My Heart Stretches from the Mountains to the Sea

by a_case_for_wonder



Series: A Mother's Heart [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Extremely light angst, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Found Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25925941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_case_for_wonder/pseuds/a_case_for_wonder
Summary: "Percy, Vex, meet my mom!"ORKeyleth gets a mom back. Maybe she's not the only one.
Relationships: Keyleth & Vilya | Viridian, Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III & Keyleth & Vex'ahlia, Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia
Series: A Mother's Heart [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1881511
Comments: 3
Kudos: 284





	My Heart Stretches from the Mountains to the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of feelings about Keyleth being the only member of VM with a living mother, and also Vilya just having such Big Mom/Community Leader Energy. Kiki and Korin have things covered on Zephra, so maybe she uses that energy to adopt a bunch of maternally starved retired adventurers? Perhaps beginning in Whitestone? 
> 
> AKA Percy and Vex get an adopted mom.

Percy is in his office when Keyleth calls, the mirror suddenly glowing and resolving into a picturesque view of Zephra over the shoulder of its leader. 

“Hey Percy!” 

They’d had the mirror enchanted years ago, and it hangs prominently above his desk, where looking through it you could see both him and the window overlooking the lawns of Whitestone Castle trailing toward the Parchwood. Percy spares just a glance and a small smile at it as the channel opens, focused on reading through a new round of hunting regulations Vex had asked him to check for her. 

“Hello, Keyleth.” 

They’d gotten the mirrors so they could call with news or questions, but more often than not now she calls just to chat. Sometimes she takes her own mirror with her on long walks through her gardens or the mountains around Zephra, chatting about village gossip or some new plant she’s run across. Those conversations don’t usually require him to participate much, just half-listen as he works through some new local regulation or drawings for a tricky bit on the clock tower. Sometimes they talk for hours. Sometimes they barely speak at all, just exist in parallel for a while, keeping each other company. She calls randomly but often, and over the years Percy has found himself doing the same in return. 

“Hey, um. Are you busy?” she asks. 

That’s a signal that this is more than a casual chat or silent company call. Percy sits up and faces the mirror properly. Keyleth is in her garden, the rows of low vegetable plants and hardy flowers stretching out behind her. She’s clearly pacing, and there’s something tense about her expression that puts Percy on high alert. 

“Not at all.” He deliberately closes the folder he’d had open, focusing on her. “Are you alright? Has something happened?” She hadn’t used the Crisis Orb, but that only means it isn’t of international importance. It doesn’t mean something can’t be wrong. 

She stops, and visibly forces herself to take a few deep breaths. Her mouth works for a moment before she finally says, “Actually, this would be better in person. Would you mind if I-”

Percy is already getting up. “The Sun Tree or the bench?” Public or private? 

“The Sun Tree is fine. And um. If Vex is around?” 

“Of course,” he assures her. “We’ll see you in a couple of minutes, alright?” 

She gives him a relieved smile. “Thanks, Percy.” 

As the mirror goes dark Percy is already reaching for his earring, calling out for the only person he knows is in range. “Vex, dear? Keyleth is coming. Sun Tree as soon as possible.”

He shrugs into his coat as he goes, and is clattering rather inelegantly down the steps when she catches up to him, a long coat thrown over what he knows is her night dress, although it’s nearly midday. 

“Feeling any better today?” 

She shrugs, striding ahead and forcing him to pick up the pace. “A bit, maybe. You’d think I would know how to deal with morning sickness by now. This is the last time, Percival.” 

“So you’ve said.” 

“Well, this time I mean it.” She waves her hands as if to dismiss the line of questioning. “What’s with Keyleth? Something wrong?” Even after twenty years of predominant peace, it’s still hard for them not to expect the worst, sometimes. 

“I’m not sure. She said it was better to talk in person. She didn’t look hurt. Shaken, perhaps. Tense. But also a bit excited, I think.”

“Alright. I’m sure she’s fine then.” Vex reaches out and squeezes his arm, and Percy lets out a breath in a rush. He hadn’t realized how tight his chest had gotten. Vex is right of course. And they’ll see Keyleth soon enough. 

As he expects, Keyleth is already waiting at the Sun Tree when they arrive. Unexpectedly, she’s not alone. 

There’s a woman beside her, one hand looped through her elbow. She’s half-eleven as well, perhaps a few decades older than Keyleth and a little shorter, and she stares up and around at the scenery of Whitestone with intelligent, curious eyes. Her clothes are clean and neat but simple, and there’s a wear to her face that speaks of years of hard living. As does her leg, a clearly enchanted one made of twisted living vines that seems to shift easily with her weight. 

“Hi Guys!” Keyleth says, in the too-bright way she gets when she’s nervous. “I want you to meet someone!” 

Percy nearly asks if they’ve met before, something about her face is so familiar. Then, impossibly, the penny drops. Her familiar features, the way she and Keyleth are clinging to each other like long-lost friends, Keyleth’s nervous excitement, _the missing leg._ It slots into place a split second before Keyleth says “Vex, Percy, meet my mom!” 

They all stare at each other for a few seconds of shocked silence. Then the woman steps forward and extends her hand. “Vilya,” she says warmly. 

“Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski De Rolo the Third,” Percy says automatically through his shock. Her grip is firm and dry. Smart, working hands. 

“Call him Percy,” Vex and Keyleth say together, and they all laugh as Vex introduces herself as well. 

“Oh my gosh, _Keyleth,”_ Vex says, gathering their friend into a fierce hug. “Darling I’m so happy for you. Gods what-” She pulls back, holding a grinning, watery-eyed Keyleth by the elbows. “Come on. The twins are down so it’s the perfect time for lunch. You must tell us _everything.”_

And they do. Over sandwiches and a green tea lemonade of Keyleth’s own devising, they hear the whole story. Being swept through a planar portal while fighting the Kraken, losing her memory to a monster on an island in the middle of the Lucidian. A group of adventurers that sound not unlike the craziness of their own youths sweeping in and bringing the monster down, restoring the memories of the village and of Vilya herself. Finally, going home. 

Vilya immediately becomes Percy’s second favorite person by telling them all her favorite embarrassing stories from Keyleth’s childhood. “I knew I had been gone a long time, but it was still a bit of a shock when I saw my little girl,” Vilya admits with a smile. “When I left she was still a gangly little teenager, absolutely all elbows.” 

“Mom!” Keyleth laughs, and something lances though Percy’s heart. Beside him, Vex stiffens minutely, the same way she still does rarely when Vesper or Freddie call the same. Percy smiles and, beneath the table, squeezes her hand. 

They end up staying for dinner as well, and Vilya ends up meeting Cassandra and most of the DeRolo children along the way. Vesper is away in Syngorn, but Freddie and Jo are delighted to meet Vilya when they wander in from their lessons, and the twins take to her quickly enough when she produces a daisy for each of them out of thin air. Aunt Keyleth is a family favorite among their kids; Percy suspects anyone she introduced to them with such obvious trust and joy would always be welcomed with open arms. 

“You have a beautiful family,” Vilya tells them later, when they’ve retired to the back garden. 

“Thank you dear,” Vex says. “We’ve been lucky to get to have it, and lucky that Keyleth is a part of it, too.” 

Lucky. It’s not a word Percy had once ever believed he would have used to describe himself, certainly not in relation to family. But she’s right. They’ve been blessed more than he’d ever believed possible. And now, against all odds, Keyleth has been blessed again, too. 

Keyleth and Vilya depart around sunset, but not before Vilya gathers Percy and Vex each in a firm hug, promising she looks forward to seeing them again. Percy and Vex retreat to their chambers, curling up together on the sofa in front of the fire. Percy gathers her to himself, nuzzling into her hair and splaying one hand over her belly and its yet-invisible passenger. She sighs, relaxing against him. 

“I can’t believe it,” she whispers. He knows what she means, tightens his arms around her just a fraction. “I’m so incredibly happy for her.” He hums in agreement, and they lay in comfortable silence for a while before she squirms a little in his arms and says, so tentatively, “It’s… it’s a little bittersweet though. Is that terrible to say?” 

He presses a kiss to her hair. “No,” he says simply. Truth be told his thoughts have been in much the same place. It’s hard not to see someone receive that kind of miracle and not feel some sort of… not jealousy, quite. Envy, perhaps. It’s not the most beautiful of emotions, but Percy’s long accepted those within himself. 

“It’s alright to wish life had been kinder to you,” he reminds her. It’s something they’ve told each other over and over, on the days their old grief had risen from its grave and threatened to swallow them again. Then, softer, “It’s alright for us to miss them. To wish we could have gotten them back, too.” Her mother, his parents and siblings. All of them. 

“It feels so selfish.” 

It does. There is an ugly part of his heart, a part that will always be eighteen and covered in fresh blood, mewling _Why her. Why does she get her mother back and not me?_ But he knows the anger is just grief, just as he knows underneath that grief he is truly happy for his best friend, knows how much she deserves a miracle of her own. 

“Maybe. I think it’s just being a person.” 

Vex smacks him lightly on the arm, turning to bury her face in the crook of his neck. “When did you get so wise?” 

“I learned from the best,” he tells her. “Anyway, I’m glad Keyleth brought her to meet us.” 

“Me too. I hope she visits again.” 

Vilya does. Not often, at first, but when little Theo DeRolo makes his way into the world it is Vilya who shows up at their door with a packed bag and an insistence she’s there for “anything you need. I love children, honestly. It’s been too long since I’ve had some to fuss over.”

After that, “Aunt Vilya” is as much a fixture in their lives as any of Vox Machina, popping in for tea every few weeks with or without Keyleth, doting on their children and gossiping with Cassandra, to whom it seems to Percy she’s become both friend and a sort of mentor. She and Vesper also get along famously, as it turns out - Vesper has been trying to promote diplomatic outreach to secluded rural communities across Tal'dorei, and she and Vilya spend hours talking about Zephra, Vo, and what kinds of resources and support such communities could benefit from. Vilya often arrives bearing new flowers or tea, and never leaves without giving each of them a firm, warm hug. 

One year at Winterscrest, the whole lot of them are in town. Percy can hear Scanlan, Pike, and Grog already causing a ruckus in the grand hall, but Keyleth and Vex are still fussing over each other’s hair beneath his bemused gaze, when Vilya stops by to check on them. 

“Hurry up you three. Before all the good appetizers are gone,” she says with a smile. Theo is on her hip, burbling and sleepily playing with the folds of her gown. 

“I am trying,” he tells her, but she just tuts and starts straigtening his cravat. 

“You can’t fool me, Percival. As if your wife would be running late if she hadn’t had to drag you out of your workshop hours past when you said you’d be done.” Percy sputters. There’s no way she can know that specifically- “I know what you’re like, sweetheart.” she smiles at him. “Now hold still, let me fix your hair.” 

“Yes, mother,” he rolls his eyes. Then freezes. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Keyleth and Vex do the same. 

The only one of them not to flinch is Vilya herself. She simply finishes messing with his hair, tucks a sprig of lavender conjured from nowhere into his lapel, and steps back. “I am old enough to be,” she agrees. “There. You’re presentable now. Keyleth dear, are you ready?” 

Keyleth follows Vilya from the room, and then it’s Vex standing in front of him, a crooked little quirk at the corner of her lips. 

“Oops,” he says quietly, still a bit dazed. 

Vex leans up and pecks his cheek. The smell of her perfume brings him back to himself a bit. “Happens to the best of us, dear. Did you know when Seeker Asum was teaching me to sneak, I once called him ‘dad’?” 

Percy laughs. Vex takes his hand. “Besides, there are worse things.” 

“I suppose there are,” he admits. She squeezes his hand. 

“Now come on. She’s right, if we don’t get out there soon Grog and Trinket will have eaten every last scrap of meat in the place. And I really want some of those bacon wrapped scallops.”

So they go, to enjoy a night's celebration with their family. Their family, one long-lost druid certainly included. And Percy reflects that as usual, Vex is right. There are certainly worse things. Worse things than their family still growing, even at the most unexpected times, and in the most unexpected directions. Worse things than miracles, when they come in the form of people who are so easy to love, and who have so much love to share.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like we aren't going to see a lot of this reunion in canon, so technically nothing I write can break it! So there! <3 
> 
> Thanks for reading!! Kudos and Comments always appreciated, or come yell about these fools on Tumblr with me @a-case-for-wonder


End file.
